111.45 Crores Worth of Digital Payment Transactions Made in May 2017: Chaudhary

Over 111 crore digital payment transactions were conducted in May this year as against more than 118 crore transactions in April, Parliament was informed on Wednesday.

The number of digital payment transactions stood at 71.27 crores in October last year, which increased to 83.48 crores in November, 123.46 crores in December and 114.96 crores in January this year, Minister of State for Electronics and IT P P Chaudhary said in a written reply to the Lok Sabha.

In February, the number dipped to 101.18 crores but surged to 119.07 crores in the following month. In April digital payment transactions stood at 118.01 crores while in May the number was at 111.45 crores, the minister said citing data from the RBI and the NPCI.

"From the above data, it is apparent that the volume of digital transactions increased during November-December 2016 and have plateaued thereafter," he added.

To a separate query, Chaudhary said 38.28 crores transactions worth Rs. 73,649 crores were conducted in May this year using credit and debit cards at PoS (point of sale).

Compared to 22.94 crore credit and debit card transactions in October, 2016 (worth Rs. 51,883 crores), the volume of the said payment method touched a peak of 53.15 crores (about Rs. 89,180 crores) in December 2016.

The minister said BHIM-Aadhaar - which was launched on April 14 this year - is a fairly new payment service and so, daily transactions are in the range of 300-400.

"However, it is gradually showing upswing," he said adding that there was a 30 percent increase in such transactions in May (vs April) and 11 percent rise in June (vs May)